The MusicWeb Message Board: Re: The death of great conducting?

Picking up on Nils-Göran's point. There is something very obvious here. The so-called great conductors are, for the most part, the ones who just happened to be there when recording became a reality. As far more people in the twentieth century got to hear orchestral repertoire through recordings than live performance, it only stands to reason that the recordings they first got to hear (those of the 'great' generation) were the ones they considered authoritative and the ones they liked best. It became second nature for listeners to believe that this is how Beethoven or Brahms, or Wagner must sound. When younger conductors recorded different interpretations they were logically mostly judged as inferior especially so as the 'maestros' of the past were often seen as infallible messengers from the Gods whose acolytes never questioned whether or not their interpretations were valid or even correct based on composers' scores. I am aware that the issue of 'correct' interpretation of a score is a very nebulous notion but there are many well-documented instances in the past of conductors butchering scores or making wholesale changes to suit themselves, something I am glad to say is seen as reprehensible today. In an interview I read with extraordinary musician and lifelong record collector Krystian Zimerman he made the point that most music critics and listeners, unlike musicians, learn a piece from recordings not from scores and when he reads their reviews he can tell which recordings they have been listening to. We would do well to remember that recordings are not the same as scores and composers write scores. We should always bear in mind that it is very difficult, especially for those without a solid musical education, to feel or believe that any interpretation of a piece of music that differs widely from the version they first fell in love with can be equally or even more valid than the version they esteem the most. Whether that is a good or a bad thing, or whether we should try to be more objective in our listening is a can of worms I will leave unopened on the shelf.

listening

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I agree. There are now many more high-quality orchestras and conductors, performing a broader repertoire in a more "collegial" way. My father was a violinist in the Stockholm Philharmonic for 50 years starting in 1925. I listened to his memories, when I started going to concerts there were still visits from a few like Klemperer, and I've collected recordings and know musicians who are active now. Objectively, we never had it as good; subjectively something may be lost. It's a matter of individual values how we feel about it. Through recordings we can now live in both "eras" which was not possible until recently.
Two factors not mentioned yet are media and markets. From around 1930 radio and records made it possible to hear how music was played elsewhere, and spread the fame of a selected few artists. Travelling made guest conducting more common. But most conductors we think of as "great" had worked locally until their fifties before being recognized as such, and their records reflect a lifetime of individual activity. They were not only authoritarian but respected for their indivudal insights. They had been influenced by a handful of older musicians they had met, but not by recordings, musicologists or other orchestras than those in the music centres where they had worked.
As an antidote to the excellent performances we now hear live or recorded, their recordings provide us with alternative views. For the older among us, we may to some extent be conditioned to prefer their untroubled personalized interpretations, particularly when they reflect local now lost traditions. For younger listeners, they can sound "wrong" but sometimes inspire. I find the same with instrumentalists and singer: until the 1950s they had a sometimes ignorant conviction which is uniquely their own (influenced by their teachers and idols) that theirs is the right way to do music, rather than the well-informed, studied approach expected from modern musicians. This is often linked to how orchestras and singers sounded different in, say, France, Italy, or Russia, from the more widespread German models.